Let’s face it: a removable steering wheel is just plain cool. And very racy too. But for me, it also has a practical side.
At 6′3″ tall, a Miata is a tight squeeze for me. The stock Nardi steering wheel in my 1999 MX5 was right up against my legs and made it un-fun to get in & out of the car. Furthermore, it was also just too big and interfered with my hand movement while driving. Putting in smaller and removable wheel was designed to solve both of these issues.
The steering wheel I chose to go with was the Italian-made 290mm Personal Steering Wheel. This is a nice-looking wheel and has a good feel to it. I picked up both the wheel and hex hub assembly from Advanced Autosports.
Personal 290mm Steering Wheel
For comparison sakes, here is a photo of the new wheel size set next to the Nardi stock wheel.
New vs. Old
Installation of the hub assembly and steering wheel fairly straightforward — with one exception. If you look at the above picture, you’ll notice there are no bolt holes in the steering wheel. In order to attach it to a quick release hub, it is necessary to drill through the wheel.
My first task in drilling was to construct a template and to tape it to the wheel. I used cardboard for my template and marked it with the bolt hole references points by: 1) using a black poster market to apply ink to the surface of my quick release hub, 2) “stamping” the quick release hub onto the cardboard in order to transfer the ink to the cardboard, 3) carefully taping the template onto the steering wheel (properly centered onto the handily marked point on the wheel). All of these items must be done VERY carefully in order to have the wheel properly mounted and centered on the steering column.
Once I had the template affix, I was ready to start drilling. I used Blu Mol drill bits designed for metal to make the bolt holes. The wheel itself is fairly soft metal (aluminum) and was pretty easy to drill through. Once done, I here’s how my wheel looked…
After Drilling
Next up was removing the old steering wheel. I had already done this previously during a dash dis-assembly, so it was pretty easy going. The first step is to release the airbag by removing a couple of bolts in the side of the plastic surround just behind the wheel. The airbag removal should be done only after disconnecting the battery (to avoid any nasty inadvertent airbag deployments).
Airbag Removal
After that, the wheel can be taken off by removal of the center nut and pulling hard on the wheel (with even pressure from both sides of the wheel).
Wheel Removed
After the wheel is off, there is still some removal work to do. The surround on the steering column must be removed (3 screws under the surround) in order to remove the turn signal deactivation assembly (the bit with the yellow label). The turn signal deactivation assembly is easily removed by taking out another three screws and disconnecting the electrical connections.
Almost Ready for Installation
At this point, I was almost ready to go with installation but had to trim a bit of plastic from the white plastic material around the column that spins freely in order to deactivate the turn signals. I decided to trim rather than remove this part since it didn’t look like it would do any harm for it to stay and yet looked like a pain to remove.
The first part of the hub that goes on should be put on with consideration for how the wheel will be aligned when the wheels are straight. I did a mock assembly to determine the proper orientation of this piece. Once placed on the attachment point, the center locking nut is re-installed.
First Step in Hub Assembly - Get the Placement Right
Next up is attaching the ugly-looking hex head.
Looks ugly but is solidly built
After this bit is on, you can put the quick release unit on to see if things are aligned properly. It may take one or two tries to get things right.
The final step is to bolt the quick release to the steering wheel and then the quick release mechanism to the column.
Final Step?
You’ll notice in the picture above that the wheel isn’t properly bolted in. In fact, it certainly isn’t safe to drive this way. The reason for this is that the wheel/hub don’t come with the necessary bolts to attach the wheel (annoying!). And why doesn’t a $100+ hub and $200+ wheel come with <$1 worth of bolts? I don’t know, but it sure is annoying.
Anyway, I’ve been told by Dave from Advance Autosports that the bolts should be 5/16″ coarse thread. I’ll be picking these up on the way home from work and finishing up the job later today.
Edit: 5/16″ coarse thread it is. My wheel is now properly bolted to the quick release mechanism.
